By Brett Manning - Trustee of the New Aussie Constitution Trust

There has been debate recently about whether Australia should do more to identify people voting at elections to prevent electoral fraud or whether it is more important not to disenfranchise potential voters that might not be able to readily prove their identity on election day. The proposed draft New Aussie Constitution would require the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to establish the identity of voters at Commonwealth elections and this article looks at the reasons why.

Voter Identification

The Liberal government recently tried to put through legislation requiring voter identification and this kicked off wide ranging debate, including from former Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who opposed it. Major parties aside, I noticed that even Senator Jacqui Lambie was unsure whether to support for the proposed legislation before finally deciding against it. As Senators go, Senator Lambie has a reputation for fair and reasoned assessment of these sort of things and so now I feel I need to be clear about why identification would be required when voting under the proposed New Aussie Constitution.

The New Aussie Constitution specifically defines the role and operation of the AEC and has it reporting to the Governor General, not the Executive Government. The intention is to strengthen the independence of the AEC and to ensure that Australians trust the integrity of the voting system. This latter point is absolutely critical, given the damaging effect that a loss of faith in free and fair elections has on democracies.

Is there a problem with voting fraud in Australia? The AEC says no, but if it is fraud we are talking about, then the whole idea is that the perpetrators do not want to get caught. So how can the AEC be so sure, given the almost non-existent controls. Are they just not catching all instances of electoral fraud?

In Australia it has happened many times that a government wins office with only a one or two seat majority. So one or two seats can really matter. Likewise, there have been many seats whose outcome has come down to only a relative handful of votes. That means if 20 people can go around to 10 electoral booths and vote 10 times each, they could potentially change the outcome of a close seat and likewise the outcome of a close election. To me, it doesn’t matter if it is happening or not, the fact that it could happen so easily under the current system undermines electoral integrity. We need to take basic precautions against fraud, just like we would do with any other important transaction in our daily lives.

So the draft New Aussie Constitution says:

“Any person who is a Voter on the date of an Election has a right to Vote…provided that they are registered as a Voter …and meet any required identification requirements…” [14.3A]

and

“The AEC may require any Person presenting to register as a Voter or presenting to Vote, to provide such identification as is determined by the laws passed by the Parliament to be necessary to ensure the integrity of Elections…”[14.3C]

Most of us are prepared to provide ID for lots of different reasons day to day, so where is the big problem for most of us with having to pull out a drivers licence or a medicare card to exercise a very important right of our democracy, to cast our vote.

This will disenfranchise a small number of voters who don’t have some form of ID available to them but every decision that every single government ever makes disadvantages someone, no matter how good it is for the majority. Surely then the plan should always be to make the best decision possible for the majority and then see what you can do to reduce the negative impact on the minority that are disadvantaged by the decision. If we stop taking decisions simply because someone somewhere is going to be worse off, then we start down the politically correct rabbit hole where nothing ever getting resolved.

Surely the AEC can come up with measures for the Parliament to legislate that will allow everyone that is entitled, to be able vote on the day. In fact, the pledge should be that everyone that claims to be a registered voter gets to vote. Then you seal the vote of any anyone that cannot be identified on the day in an envelope and mark their details on the outside, together with how their identity will be validated. The AEC can then work to resolve the identification and once that is done, the envelope passes into the count.

So, if we need to ensure the integrity of our voting system, then the right decision for the majority is to introduce some form of identification requirement. Then we can look at all the measures that we can take for the very small minority who can’t identify themselves satisfactorily on the day. It’s up to the AEC to work to boost voter registration (which they do now) and to assist voters to identify themselves but Australians also need to make the effort because voting is one of the responsibilities required of citizens of a free and fair society.

I would argue that ensuring appropriate measures against electoral fraud in the proposed draft New Aussie Constitution is the right choice to make to ensure the integrity of our electoral system. Our right to vote is also an important pillar of our system and it is worth whatever additional effort is required by the AEC to meet both ‘non-negotiable’ objectives.

If you want to learn more about the proposed draft New Aussie Constitution, take some time to look around the website or you can throw your support behind the not-for-profit New Aussie Constitution Trust by liking and sharing this Blog. Please feel free to comment or email us directly because this draft is very much a consultative process, where we want to hear from as many Australians as possible.